DP Presentation 1

7/29/2019 DP Presentation 1

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/dp-presentation-1 1/14

This is a sign in China, equivalent to a “caution” sign in america, that has been literally translated as “slip carefully”. This example of chinglish, a portmanteau of the words “chinese” and “english”. The irony is funny, because, well, slipping is tyanything but careful. You wouldn’t think any further than, “well, this was simply a funny example of bad english”. By the this presentation, I hope to change the way you read this sign.



degree

project

So my project has to do with language and semantics, to a degree... haha, that was punintentional.



RENJESSIE

chinesemidwest

growing up as a 2nd gen american in the midwest, I’ve always considered myself, american, i mean my name jessie isreminiscent of a sharpshooting cowgirl from the wildwest. yet i still I get the question asked to me often, “what are you?”say kansan, which is where i was born, they usually don’t ask any further, sometimes, i’ll get someone who is dying to kni am, asking “no really, what are you?”, and to which i respond, “darn, you caught me, I’m actually nebraskan, was it the athat gave it away?”



how well we understand each other

number

of languages

ren household communication

While growing up in Nebraska, I started to realize how dif erent i was, not just in appearance, but in the way i spoke. In mfamily, i learned two dif erent languages, and maybe a third one, which is a mixture of the former two. I know firsthand hquickly communication deteriorates when languages get mixed. This experience has lead to my interest in language and ef ects us, particularly from an immigrant’s experience.



it is theorized that language, a uniquely human

trait, developed to allow humans to work together, to

cooperate with one another.

today, it seems that language is what separates us

from understanding each other.

how did something originally meant to bring us

together, set us apart?

It is theorized that language, a uniquely human trait, developed to allow humans to work together, to cooperate within gToday it seems that language is what separates us from understanding each other. How did something orignally meant tous together, set us apart?

it seems that words, the most basic unit of interaction, is at once mankind’s clarity and source of confusion.



QUESTION:

how can an interactive exhibit reveal how language

influences our experiences of the world?

I will argue that what we speak impacts the way we think, that our mother tongue shapes our experiences of the world.



as concept

language

as label



GOALS

offer insight to the language experience of the american immigrant experience

shared global experience through language

create empathy for the people of different cultures



OBJECTIVES

teach basic linguistic concepts such as spatial language, gender language,

and color based languages

hold a different perspective about languages and what they could mean

making connections between one’s own experience to that of a second

generation american



CONTEXT

art galleries

first fridays

college campuses

senior show



CONTENT

anecdotes from other 2nd gen americans

linguistic research on multi-languages and crosstalk

various languages



audience

potentially anyone. especially those who

live in the midwest or have not been

exposed to the cultural diversity as

experienced in larger cities or on the

coast.



proposed artifacts

translation panel

fortune cookie messages

game of mistranslation

untranslatable words



Looking at this sign again, it’s easy to dismiss it for poor translation. However, keep in mind that it was translated from athinking, a conceptual notion that doesn’t necessarily have the same label in another language. So as I progress through project, I hope to instill this idea of “slipping carefully”, of thinking twice about the nature of a language slip, of amisunderstanding.

DP Presentation 1

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Transcript of DP Presentation 1